The subject matter disclosed herein relates to imaging techniques for use in an image-guided procedure, such as to provide accurate imaging of small, high-contrast structures, including contrast-enhanced vasculature and devices.
Various medical procedures involve the intra-arterial injection of contrast agents to visualize vascular structure, and/or insertion and navigation of a tool within a patient's body. For example, needle-based procedures (e.g., lung biopsy, vertebroplasty, RF ablation of liver tumors, and so forth) may involve the insertion and navigation of a needle or needle associated tool through the body of a patient. Such procedures, therefore, benefit from the acquisition of image data suitable for discerning and displaying small structures within the patient body. For example, such image data may be used to evaluate shape and location of vessels feeding a tumor, safely guide a device to the target while avoiding critical structures (e.g., arteries and veins) and obstructions (e.g., bones).
Such image data may be acquired using various types of imaging modalities that employ various radiological principles. For example, technologies such as X-ray fluoroscopy, cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), X-ray computed tomography (CT), and tomosynthesis use various physical principles, such as the varying transmission of X-rays through a target volume, to acquire projection data and to construct images (e.g., three-dimensional, volumetric representations of the interior of the human body or of other imaged structures).
Such conventional modalities, however, may be bulky and may limit the movements and operations performed by a clinician and/or maybe limit aspects of the imaging operation such as the timing and/or administration of contrast agents, to particular conditions. For example, CBCT and CT may employ imager configurations that spin a source and detector about the patient, which may prohibit certain operations being performed near the patient during imaging and may be bulky in implementation. Conversely however, modalities that are less bulky or more flexible in terms of imaging constraints typically operate with a narrower range of viewing angles, and may not provide sufficient image quality for clinical purposes. It may, therefore, be desirable to generate image data suitable for providing 3D volumes with sufficient image quality for the clinical task at hand during a procedure and using a system that is flexible in terms of operator movement and imaging operations.